This invention relates to a method of and to an apparatus for reclaiming components from scrap paper material as used for the packing of goods which are exposed during shipment to unfavorable weather conditions and the like. The invention insures a high grade of purity of the recovered components of the scrap.
The rapid development of automatic packaging machines in recent times has required research and manufacture of novel sheet packing materials with special properties, such as impermeability to gases and vapors, impermeability to radiations of certain wave lengths, high stress resistance, resistance to mechanical shock, good flexibility, weldability by heat, good pressing properties, resistivity to different surrounding media, and the like.
In order to meet these stringent requirements, laminated sheet packing materials have been developed, wherein each of the layers used has certain required properties. All of the layers are mutually connected to form a compact planar system by binding agents. In most cases, layers of metal, paper and plastic foils are used. The material used for individual layers is generally of high quality, unobjectionable from the point of view of health, and therefore also rather expensive.
The possibility of reclaiming individual components from the scrap of this combined material is therefore rather important from the economic point of view.
Scrap of similar combined materials also results in the course of their manufacture, for example, in case of a faulty operation of the laminating apparatus, and also in the course of their being formed, i.e., in their pressing, cutting, and when adjusting automatic packing machines.
Prior systems for the working of scrap of combined paper materials operate on a number of principles: heat treatment by burning organic components, chemical extraction of soluble components, or by defibration and flotation.